The William & Mary volleyball team got off to a fantastic start to the 2016 season Friday, downing Clemson 3-2 in their home gym after a barn-burner of a match.  The Tribe improves to 1-0 to start the year, while the Tigers fell to 0-1 overall.  It was also the first career win for new Tribe head coach Melissa Ferris.  In the first match of the weekend's Big Orange Bash tournament, High Point defeated Wofford 3-0: tomorrow W&M will face both teams.

"I am so proud of the heart and determination of this team," exclaimed Ferris afterwards.  "They never gave up and stayed together as a unit.  This was a great team effort and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us!"

Youth was the order of the day for the Tribe, as four of the top five scorers were freshmen and sophomores.  Leading the way in her collegiate debut was rookie Casey Foote (Prospect, Ky.), who just missed a double-double with 15 kills and nine digs.  Her classmate Alex Stein (East Setauket, N.Y.) also had an impressive debut, hitting .375 with 11 kills and a pair of blocks.

Sophomore Heather Pippus (Lake Oswego, Ore.) showed no drop in production from her strong rookie campaign last fall, providing tonight eight kills, seven digs, and a brace of two aces and blocks each.  Fellow sophomore Katie Primatic (Pittstown, N.J.) was close behind with seven kills, adding a team-high three blocks on the night.  Junior Paige Humphrey (Oak Hill, Va.) rounded out the top-five with seven more kills, and had a hand in yet another block.

Also impressive was the play away from the net, which included another near double-double from freshman setter Autumn Brenner (McLean, Va.).  Brenner ably took the reins of the Tribe offence with 39 assists, eight digs, three kills, and an ace and a block.  Senior Gabrielle Pe (Virginia Beach, Va.) earned the start at Libero, coming away with a match-high 14 digs and another ace.

Clemson started the night with a win in the first set, but the Tribe remained calm and composed, and came out firing on all cylinders in the second set.  The Green and Gold went up 3-0 earlier after a big solo block by Pippus, then kept slowly extending the lead over the middle ground of the set.  A 4-1 run pushed it out to five points, 10-5, then another put the Tribe in front by seven, 17-10.  W&M gained another big lead at 20-13, then weathered Clemson's last surge and Humphrey put away a kill to tie the match with a 25-22 win.

After the intermission, the third set also went W&M's way 25-18, putting the Tribe on top 2-1 in the match.  The Tigers had the early lead 6-4, but another Humphrey kill ignited a 5-0 run that flipped the script and put the visitors in front.  Clemson made a charge of their own to regain the lead and opened another two-point advantage, 13-11, before W&M seized control for good with two-straight service aces from Pippus, part of a 7-1 run for the Tribe.  The Tigers never got closer than three the rest of the way, as Humphrey shined with four kills and no errors in set.

Clemson would rally to win the fourth set to tie the match, and send the teams into the winner-take-all fifth.  Once again it was the Tribe answering the bell early, with a kill by Pippus to start the frame and three kills by Stein in the first five points staking W&M to a 4-1 lead.  The rookie added a fourth kill to make the score 6-3, then Clemson got one point back and never got any closer again.  Foote's final kill of the night shut the door on the Tigers, and a 4-0 run with two kills by Primatic and Brenner's ace put W&M well in front, 13-7, en route to a 15-10 win in the set.

William & Mary continues the Big Orange Bash on Saturday, taking on Wofford at 11 a.m., and High Point at 4 p.m.